


The Dark Side of the Rainbow

by Antrodemus



Category: The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 05:23:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9705209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antrodemus/pseuds/Antrodemus
Summary: A shorter version of this was posted on the poetsbeforeedit Twitter. I don't own these characters and do not profit by offering an alternative version of the story.





	

Glinda smiled the smile that meant everything was going to be all right. "You've always had the power to go back to Kansas."

The Scarecrow might have stamped his foot, if he didn't have the gravitas of a new Doctorate of Thinkology constraining him. "Then why didn't you tell her before?"

The smile did not change a millimeter, but somehow cooled several degrees. "It wasn't so easy as that. These shoes are artifacts of great power and cunning. Had she attempted to use them before she learned to spot flim-flam and stand up for her friends--- and herself--- they would have taken her very soul. Her body would have gone back to Kansas, but it would only have been a shell for an ancient, eldritch power with no care for good or evil as we know it. There is no death in Oz, you know, but the Dorothy we know and love would have been so far beyond dead, there is not word for it in our language." The smile stayed put, forgotten for a moment, then Glinda lit it up again with the silver light of a million movie screens. 

It is not logical for a Scarecrow to shudder. Let's pretend that never happened.

"Then why didn't you warn her?" asked the Lion.

"I think you know that answer, Your Majesty. If she had known to be afraid for herself, she would never have tried to master herself, and never learned what she learned."

The Scarecrow asked, "What have you learned, Dorothy?"

"I learned that sometimes, you have to stand up and do what is right to protect someone you love, even if it means being a bother to powerful people, and there is not enough niceness in the world to make a cruel person turn kind. I... um..." 

The smile tilted on its axis and somehow glittered in the light, and Glinda nodded as if to say, "Go on."

"... I learned that some people are just awful people who don't care about you, and not to let them have any control over you if they've proven that."

The Scarecrow blinked. "Why, I could have told you that without any brains at all!" 

The lion shuffled his feet. "That's why ya have to have courage, Dorothy," he said. "If everyone was as nice as you are, you wouldn't need to stand up to bullies."

But Nick Chopper said quietly, "That's a hard lesson. It's why I'm made of tin now."

Glinda beamed. "You see, she had to find it out for herself. Now those magic slippers will take you home in two seconds!"

You may have heard it differently. That's the beauty of the land of Oz, though: everyone takes the lesson they need from it.

Even if you had the lesson within you all along.


End file.
